James Barrese

With more than 25 years of technology experience that spans the military, academic world, business consulting, payments, and enterprise platforms and infrastructure, James Barrese has broad experience in digital transformations, payments, security, infrastructure and developing innovative product solutions for consumers and businesses.

A graduate of Stanford, James served as a high-frequency communications specialist for the U.S. Army Signal Corp, spent time as a programmer at Stanford, worked for Andersen Consulting, and then joined the e-philanthropy company Charitableway as vice president of engineering. In 2001, James joined eBay and led a number of strategic technology initiatives, including serving as the vice president in charge of delivering the open platforms, creating infrastructure services, systems software, analytics and site operations running the world’s largest marketplace at scale.

In 2011, James moved over to PayPal. In 2015, James expanded his role to also lead the Payment Services business in PayPal, a global team that powers the efficient movement of money and rewards into, out of, and within the PayPal network. As PayPal’s CTO, James leveraged his deep expertise in leading overall technology strategies, building a next-generation global infrastructures, data platforms and secure, flexible and reliable systems that delivered innovation and world class customer experiences.

James earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Stanford University. James is based in Silicon Valley and he currently operates as an independent board director and advisor. He is a member of the board member of Marin Software and The Tech Museum of Innovation. James serves on a digital advisory board for VimpelCom, one of the world’s largest integrated telecommunications services operators.